332 BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



gilds the ocean. Bird life is not lacking in the scene; herring gulls are 

 Hying about on all sides, often coming near enough to tempt us to shoot 

 at them; but never quite near enough to kill; they seem to know just 

 how far a gun will shoot. Occasionally a black-backed or a few kittiwake 

 gulls are seen. Loons are frequently passing, generally high in the air, 

 with long outstretched necks, flying swiftly in a straight line, their bodies 

 propelled by rapid wing strokes; they often fly within gunshot, but are 

 tough and hard to kill. Large flocks of Old-squaws make interesting 

 shooting, as they twist and turn and wheel in compact bunches; they are 

 swift of wing and not easy to hit; their weird cries add a tinge of wild- 

 ness to the scene. On rare occasions the sport is enlivened by a shot at 

 a flock of Brant, and our pulse runs high when we see a long line of 

 big black birds with white bellies headed for our boat, flying close to 

 the water; we are lucky if we get any for they are very shy. 



"The little 'gray coots,' the young of the American and the Surf 

 Scoters, give the best shooting and are the best for the table; they de- 

 coy well, particularly when in small flocks, and are easily killed; a pair 

 or a single bird will often circle about the decoys again and again, giving 

 plenty of chances for long single shots. 'Butter bills' and 'skunk heads,' 

 the adults of these two species, decoy well in small flocks, but large 

 flocks are usually wild and either pass the line high in the air or circle 

 out around the end of it. Fifteen or twenty birds is considered a good 

 day's sport, but as many as 135 birds have been killed in a day by two 

 gunners in one boat, or over 90 by a single gunner. Although they are 

 thus persecuted year after year throughout the whole length of their 

 migration route, they do not seem to have diminished materially in num- 

 bers since the time of our earliest records, and vast numbers of them 

 nill migrate along our coast." 



To the foregoing interesting account of the sport of "coot" shoot- 

 ing, may be added a few words by Rich (1907): "One oddity in the 

 gentle art of duck shooting is the practice of "hollerin' coots' that is, 

 of making a great noise when a flock is passing by out of shot when 

 they will often turn and come to the decoys. The report of a gun some- 

 times has the same effect, but we New Englanders are too thrifty to 

 waste powder and lead where our vocal organs will serve as well." 

 Finally, Heilner, in his excellent work, A Book on Duck Shooting 

 (1939), concludes a delightful chapter on an account of a day's coot 

 shooting in the following words: "At last we tore ourselves away and 

 reluctantly turned homeward towards Chatham, Barnstable, and Boston. 

 Let others have their canvas-back and mallard. Let others have their 

 honkers and their wavies. Give me the long lines of dories anchored off 

 Barnstable or Gurnet Point, the ever-wheeling gannets and the flash of 

 the light at North Truro. And when I'm too old to gun any more, take 

 me down on Monomoy the day of a big northwester and sit me on a 

 chair to watch the skunk-heads run the gantlet. And when you take me 

 home that night I want a big red-hot, steaming plate-full of good old 

 coot stew!" 



